Learning About the American War in Vietnam

The sound of M16s and AK47s still rings above the tunnels of Cu Chi almost 40 years after the US pulled out of Vienam but these days it's tourists, not soldiers, firing as part of their visit to the 200 km of underground passageways that protected the residents of this area and allowed the Viet Cong to sneak up on US soldiersin their tents, seemingly appearing from thin air.

I hate to say this, because Vietnamese culture is fascinating on its own, but one of my main reasons for coming to this country was to deepen my shallow understanding of what people here call the American War. Between these tunnels and the War Remenants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, I've gotten to see a very Vietnamese perspective.

Tet: Lunar New Year in Vietnam!

"Everyone is wearing pajamas!" my new friend Karina said when we arrived in Chau Doc, a town just across the Vietnam border. The matching, loose-fitting shirt and pants sets that women here wear truly look like nighties to our Western eyes.

Adding to the impression that this country is one big slumber party are the many hammocks that line the highways here: rows and rows of Pitt stop nap stations. I want to try one out, for the cultural experience, of course.

But if Vietnam is a slumber party, it's the kind where everyone stays up all night. There's been hardly a dull moment since I got here--and not just because we're in the midst of Tet, the lunar new year celebration.

Along the Mekong

You know it's a relaxed journey when the boat driver is not only steering with his feet on the wheel, but reading a book at the same time. The Mekong Delta may be the place where Vietnam grows most of it's rice (and Vietnam trails only Thailand in global rice exports, so that's no small feat) but you wouldn't have known it from the pace of our boat tour through the area.

The trip started in Cambodia and ended in Vietnam, but even the border crossing was relaxed: we pulled up in our tiny boat and grabbed lunch in the no man's land restaurant while we waited for everything to be ready. There was the small matter of one girl having the wrong visa, but even that problem disappeared with a $5 bill.

Last Day in Cambodia

Every country is different. Really. I'm not making this up.

After this last day of wandering around in Phnom Penh, here are a few off-beat things I'll remember about Cambodia:

1) They use US dollars. When I got my first handful of greenbacks out of the ATM, I thought they must be fake. The width felt wrong. The texture felt wrong. Were these money? (I think I've been out of the US a little too long.) But they were real and people really use them all the time. It's 4,000 riels to the dollar, and everyone wants to deal with small numbers, so they use riels for change and dollars for the big stuff. (Yes. That's my educated analysis of the Cambodian economy.)

No Smiling

Rather than no smoking signs around the Tuol Sleng Museum, there are no smiling signs, or at least, that's what they look like. But there is no need for a reminder not to smile here. As Security Prison 21, this former high school was the place where approximately 17,000 inmates met torture and death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s.

I spent the morning wandering past countless photos of the inmates and guards, which the Kmher Rouge took as part of its fastidious record keeping. Most striking was that the photos of the two groups were so similar. In fact, many of the guards later became inmates. Many were just children. Everyone was Cambodian.

Angkor Wat

A local tuk tuk driver saw me riding a bike around in the Temples of Angkor and laughed. "Tomorrow, I drive you?" he asked. "No thanks," I said. "But it's a long way." I wiped a few tablespoons of sweat from my brow, "Nope."

It was awesome. I've been to plenty of temples in China and now Thailand, enough to know that I prefer John Muir's cathedrals to brick and mortar buildings. But the Temples of Angkor, the crown jewel of Cambodia, are more than buildings. When was the last time you got a workout in church? This was an adventure.

Cruising through the vast grounds, I had to marvel at the scale of this place. Every one of the many temples I visited would have been a site worth seeing on it's own.

Chiangmai Continues

Tigers on Tuesday
"No eat him! No eat her!" the tiger trainer kept saying as Eric and I petted 19-month-old Sunflower, a full-sized tiger. At times I would look up and realize that, as I petted one tiger, there were two others within springing distance.

Of course, there was something unnatural about the harmlessness of these animals. If petting "tame" tigers in a center is safe and ethical, why don't people do it more often? I'm not sure, but tigers are magnificent creatures and I'm glad that I got the chance to get so close to them--and even more glad that they didn't eat me.

But petting the tigers wasn't even the highlight of the day. Oh no. That came later, when Eric and I spent a lazy evening listening to live music, sipping drinks, and chatting.